Sports Ministry halts women’s football team from Afcon qualifiers

The Ministry of Sports has withdrawn the women’s national football team from the upcoming qualifiers for the Women’s African Nations Cup, citing lack of enough competitiveness. In a letter addressed to the Rwanda football federation (Ferwafa), the ministry made reference to the team’s recent performance in World Cup qualifiers where they lost to Ethiopia 8-0 on aggregate in the two games they played in September and this month. The ministry also pointed to the fact that there has not been local tournaments for months, among more undesirable effects of Covid-19 to the sports sector. “As much as we appreciate your intent to have our national women football team represent Rwanda in the AFCON2022 women qualifiers, it is against the above that the request is made for FERWAFA to inform the organizers of the upcoming total women’s African cup national 2022, that Rwanda national women team will not participate,” the statement signed by Shema Maboko, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry revealed. “Recommendation is made to first develop a long-term development plan for women’s football and resume women football competitions to allow the players to prepare and first play locally before competing in regional and continental tournaments,” it added. The women’s national team last participated in a tournament in 2018 during the CECAFA tournament in Kigali.